I'm workshopping using the title for a ZineQuest February 2026 project. The basic idea is to keep it fairly light, and it is a wrestling game using basically the ideas from Rising Forces. Unlike a lot of Wrestling RPGs I find, the wrestling is basically "Real" here. These wrestlers want to win and really fight to do so. The game is not about working together to narrate entertaining matches, per se. Also, the world of wrestling in this game really branches out like in martial arts movies. Wrestlers will inexplicably end up in real world adventures, a little bit like those Lucha Libre movies, but more '80s action. As for tone, I'm going with really flamboyant '80s. California Games, working out in gyms in the summer, muscle beach, I-ROC Zs, animal prints, hot pink, totally gonzo.
Just to chat about the difficulties: A wrestling match ends with a pin and not someone being knocked out, generally. Usually, but not always, a wrestler is pretty beat up at the end of a match, but you never see a Pro Wrestling match that is like, a guy gets beat up by someone fighting like a boxer or martial artist, is knocked down and someone lays on them for the pin. This dynamic is part of why most normal RPG combat systems are bad at emulating a wrestling match. The lulls and contours of a match are not well simulated by other games. Also, games that do work for wrestling are often narrative style games where the players narrate the action, and if not fully in a story-game mode, even if a wrestler picks a specific style of technique to perform it is often said that they are picking the highlight maneuver that features among other in-ring action that occurs during their turn that they might be permitted to freely narrate. I'd like something that is not so much about narrating in this way.
I'm kinda half starting from a Rising Forces base currently, but have also considered something like a MSH or MURPG base. Whatever base I settle upon, it seems there has to be some kind of stamina that generally goes down over the course of a match, but that there needs to be a way to turn it around as well. Like, generally over the course of a match, the stamina should go down and the wrestlers should be in more danger, or more able to execute difficult moves that could finish a match, but it is possible to catch a second wind. Maybe something like a poker game should be considered, at least the contours of a poker game.
Let's lay out the basics of the game. Let's start with the Attributes
Power | Accuracy | Resistance | |
Physical | Strength | Reflexes | Endurance |
Mental | Reason | Intuition | Willpower |
Spiritual | Aura | Influence | Stability |
[Character Creation: Prioritize the 3 Categories (Mental/Physical/Spiritual), then assign from 1 to 5 points to each attribute (10/8/6)]
This Attribute layout is slightly different from that in the original Street Fighter RPG. The main inspiration was the way DC Heroes splits Attributes, but also even White Wolf went with a similar Attribute set up for their "New World of Darkness" games. I may choose different names for the Attributes, but I'm happy with the number and function of them. The current rules I have for assigning Attributes at Character Creation are just a clone of the Street Fighter rules, worded differently. There is no reason the rule should be this way, but it also works. So, in the absense of some scheme I think is better, I am happy to leave things as they were in the original game.
It's using my current Rising Forces resolution system. You basically roll Attribute + Skill in d6, trying to "score" on the dice rolled. One of the dice rolled is always a "Wild Die" that is of a different color from the others. Here it is, summed up:
Let's do it.